S.F. drivers floored by cost of gas / 38 cents above U.S. average -- state feels impact of oil prices

Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, August 13, 2005

Photo: CHRISTINA KOCI HERNANDEZ

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CHRISTINA KOCI HERNANDEZ/CHRONICLE
Chevron gas station on VanNess at Union.
the price of gas at some sf stations has gone above $3/gallon for regular unleaded. we talk to pissed off people.

CHRISTINA KOCI HERNANDEZ/CHRONICLE
Chevron gas station on VanNess at Union.
the price of gas at some sf stations has gone above $3/gallon for regular unleaded. we talk to pissed off people.

Photo: CHRISTINA KOCI HERNANDEZ

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CHRISTINA KOCI HERNANDEZ/CHRONICLE
Gas customer, Frank Tognotti, of San Francisco, gasps at high gas prices at the Chevron gas station on VanNess at Union.
the price of gas at some sf stations has gone above $3/gallon for regular unleaded. we talk to pissed off people. less

CHRISTINA KOCI HERNANDEZ/CHRONICLE
Gas customer, Frank Tognotti, of San Francisco, gasps at high gas prices at the Chevron gas station on VanNess at Union.
the price of gas at some sf stations has gone above ... more

Photo: CHRISTINA KOCI HERNANDEZ

S.F. drivers floored by cost of gas / 38 cents above U.S. average -- state feels impact of oil prices

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Frank Tognotti pulled into a gas station on San Francisco's Van Ness Avenue on Friday and was shocked that it cost nearly $30 to pump just 9 gallons of regular into the SUV he says he bought to help stimulate the economy after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"That's the worst I've ever seen it," said the 38-year-old Emeryville man, who drives daily to the restaurant he opened two years ago in North Beach. "Why California? Why the Bay Area? Who says we have the deep pockets?" Tognotti asked rhetorically after shelling out $3.10 a gallon.

Americans coast to coast are digging deeper and paying more these days as factors ranging from a series of refinery shutdowns to international jitters have driven crude oil prices to new highs. Oil scheduled for September delivery closed at $66.86 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest close recorded since trading began there in 1983. A little over three weeks ago, the same barrel of crude cost $56.72.

The rapid run-up in crude has sent gas prices soaring, particularly in California, where the current average price per gallon for regular stood at $2. 72 Friday, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report. The comparable national average was $2.41 per gallon.

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If it's any comfort, San Francisco's average of $2.79 per gallon of regular was two-tenths of a cent lower than in Santa Barbara, which had the highest price per gallon Friday of the 25 metropolitan areas in California tracked by AAA.

San Francisco resident Diane Sinnott was stunned to shell out $28 to put just under 9 gallons of regular into her sports car at the same Van Ness station whose price had shocked Tognotti -- especially since there was another station a block away where gas was selling at the citywide average, a savings of about 30 cents per gallon.

"But I only fill up about once a month," said the 43-year-old Sinnott, who keeps the car garaged most of the time and walks to her Financial District job as an art consultant. "I'm sort of glad gas prices are this way. I hope it forces people to sell their gas guzzlers."

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In the parking lot at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, JoAnn and Vance Dreher, 39, sat with their two children and JoAnn's mom in a rented minivan, escaping the fog and chill. They had been flabbergasted when they paid $2.70 a gallon to fill up earlier that day -- a bargain for the Bay Area, but a shock, given that regular had been running about $2.25 a gallon when they left their Cleveland suburb a week ago to fly here for a summer vacation.

"I think they're trying to make a world price," said Vance Dreher, without naming any names behind this pricing plot.

A nearby busload of tourists from the Israeli city of Haifa said the Golden Gate was great but that California prices were nothing to crow about. "It's three times as much at home," said Israeli tour leader Giora Bernat.

But for truck driver Jerry Hawkins, 59, the recent run-up in diesel fuel -- which was $2.32 a gallon when he left Toledo about a week ago and now is running upwards of $2.80 -- has added $80 to $100 to the cost of filling up his thirsty 18-wheeler. And since the truck is his own, and he runs it on a flat contract fee, each tankful comes out of his pocket.

"I've been at this 31 years, and this is the worst it's been," said Hawkins, who was loading up on the south side of San Francisco before setting off on a long haul to New York. "I won't be able to afford this very much longer."

At the U-Haul Center on Bayshore Boulevard, San Lorenzo residents Larry and Lupe Foster, were waiting for the truck that the couple planned to drive up to Portland, where they are moving to be near family.

Larry Foster, who recently retired from a career as a wind power engineer, said he really isn't that bothered by the current price spikes, but he said he is aggravated with the environmental and political opposition that has prevented drilling off the California coast and in the Arctic.

"To me, it's common sense," he said, to increase domestic supply and cut down on oil imports.

Lupe Foster listened and smiled and gently shook her head. On election days, she gets up early, she told a reporter, to make sure she can get to the polls and cancel out Larry's vote.

CHART:

Pumped up

$2.41 National average

$2.72 California average

$2.79 Highest average in California *

$2.65 Lowest average in California**

$2.79 San Francisco average

$2.72 San Jose average

$2.73 Oakland average

*Santa Barbara, which is slightly higher than S.F.

**Sacramento

Source: AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report

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